Author's purpose

In practice

Author's purpose is the reason an author writes a text: what they want it to do to the reader. Schools teach the three main purposes as PIE: to persuade, to inform and to entertain. A cereal ad persuades, a news report informs and a comic novel entertains, and naming the purpose is the first step to explaining why the text is written the way it is.

Most real texts mix purposes, so the useful question is which one leads. A nature documentary informs, but its music and cliffhangers are there to entertain, and its last minutes about habitat loss are there to persuade. When a test asks for "the author's purpose", it wants the main one, backed by details from the text.

Purpose is not the same as topic or central idea. The topic is what the text is about (school lunches), the central idea is what it says about that topic (school lunches are healthier than they were ten years ago), and the purpose is what the author wants that idea to do (inform parents, or persuade the school board to keep the new menu).

Author's purpose in a scene about a flyer

Noor wrote to entertain when her purpose was to inform, and to get a stranger to act. Sami's objection is a purpose argument: every choice on a flyer should serve what it needs to do. The new version drops the jokes and leads with the facts a reader needs, which is what an informing text puts first.

Author's purpose examples: persuade, inform, entertain

To persuade: an op-ed arguing for a later school start time, a campaign speech, a charity appeal, a product review that ends with "buy it." Clues are a clear opinion, emotional language, reasons stacked toward one conclusion and a call to act. Ethos, pathos and logos are the persuading writer's tools.

To inform: a textbook chapter, a news report, a recipe, an encyclopedia entry, instructions for assembling a desk. Clues are facts, dates, numbers, headings, diagrams and a neutral tone. Some lists add "to explain" or "to describe" as separate purposes; both are kinds of informing.

To entertain: a short story, a joke, a comic, a mystery novel, a sitcom script. Clues are characters, suspense, humor, vivid description and a plot. Entertaining texts often carry a theme as well, which is why literature classes ask about both purpose and message.

How to identify the author's purpose

Ask what the text wants from you when you finish. If it wants you to believe or do something, the purpose is to persuade. If it wants you to know or understand something, it informs. If it wants you to enjoy, feel or imagine something, it entertains. The ending often gives it away, because it is where a text asks for what it came for.

Then look at the choices that serve it. Word choice, tone, structure, evidence and images all point toward the purpose. A text full of statistics with no opinion is informing; the same statistics followed by "we must act now" are persuading. Note where the text was published and for whom, too: an article on a company's own website has a different purpose from one in an independent newspaper.

Answer in a full sentence with evidence: "The author's purpose is to persuade parents to support a later start time, which she shows by opening with a story about an exhausted student and closing with a request to attend the school board meeting." A purpose plus the proof is what most rubrics score.

Purpose in a rhetorical analysis

In AP Language and college writing, purpose is part of the rhetorical situation, beside the speaker, the audience, the context and the exigence. Here PIE is too blunt. A strong analysis names a precise purpose with a verb: to rally, to reassure, to warn, to shame, to redefine. "Lincoln's purpose was to persuade" is true of almost every speech; "Lincoln's purpose was to redefine the war as a fight for equality" is an argument.

Tie each rhetorical choice to that purpose. Instead of listing devices, explain how each one moves the audience toward what the speaker wants. "Lincoln echoes the Declaration's 'all men are created equal' to remind a divided audience that the nation was founded on a promise it now has to keep" connects the choice, the audience and the purpose in one sentence.

Deciding your own purpose before you write

Writers get tangled when their purpose is unclear. Before drafting, finish the sentence "After reading this, I want my reader to…". Know, believe, do or feel? The answer decides what goes first, how much evidence you need, and which tone fits. A cover letter that wants an interview, a story that wants a laugh and a report that wants a decision are three different shapes.

Screenwriters face the same choice scene by scene. A scene can exist to inform the audience of a fact, to persuade them to root for a character, or to entertain with a set piece. The best scenes do more than one, but if a scene does none, it is usually the first thing to cut in a rewrite.